ABSTRACT
The majority of research on outbound student mobility tends to concentrate on outcomes and impacts on students. Less attention is paid to the challenges and tensions associated with study-abroad programs. Furthermore, the perspectives of academics and practitioners who are directly involved in designing and implementing these programs are frequently overlooked, and the voices of host communities remain largely absent from the discourse. This chapter seeks to address this gap by bringing these underrepresented perspectives to the forefront. This chapter seeks to address this paucity by bringing these underrepresented perspectives to the forefront. It presents key findings about challenges and tensions in study-abroad programs for Australian students in the Indo-Pacific from the perspectives of academics, practitioners and host communities. In particular, the chapter discusses the challenges and tensions in relation to the expectations by students, home and host institutions; funding application process; student selection process; workload for students and staff; credit recognition; program evaluation; program sustainability; language and cross-cultural issues and the management of in-country risks.
